Hirogaru Sky Precure Ep 1 Review: It's Hero Time!

Hi, Everyone! This is my review of the first episode of Hirogaru Sky Precure and my thoughts on the episode. Can Hirogaru Sky be able to make it or break it this year since Delicious Party Precure was so bad that the final transformation for Team Delicious Party is to light up candles?! I immediately flipped my keyboard after that! (Don't worry, my keyboard is okay!)

Our story begins with Sora Harewataru arriving at the Skyland Kingdom where the King and Queen are celebrating the infant Princess Eru's birthday. But a Piglike monster named Kabaton abducted Eru which led Sora to confront him.

Kabaton used a strong fart (A Fart Joke?!) to confuse Sora and he took Eru into a portal. Sora follow suit and managed to save Eru after Kabaton hit himself onto a floating rock. But Sora and Eru instead entered another portal and were high above Sorashindo City on Earth.

At the same time, Nijigaoka Mashiro was doing an errand for her grandmother when she found Sora's diary, and subsequently, Sora and Eru landed safely on the ground thanks to Eru's magic. But before Sora could ask Mashiro where are they, Kabaton followed them and created a Ranborg monster out of a tractor. 

Sora told Mashiro to take Eru away from Kabaton and tried to hold off the Ranborg. Of course, Sora was tossed around and Kabaton caught up with Mashiro and Eru. Sora with her injuries was limping forward when her diary fell in front of Kabaton. He mocked Sora for having naive hero dreams and tore off her diary. 

Love the captions of her name in the background..

But Sora didn't give in to his taunts and stood up high as she believed in doing the right thing. Her feelings somehow created her transformation item, the Sky Mirage and Eru created the Sky Tone for her to transform into Cure Sky.

Let's do this! Girl to Monster!

Cure Sky is Channelling Domon's Shining Finger Chant...

Cure Sky was amazed by her new strength and easily took down the Ranborg with a few moves. She then finished off the Ranborg with her special attack-Hero Girl Sky Punch. After Kabaton retreat, Sora transformed back and saw Mashiro and Eru welcoming her back...

A homage to Futari Precure Wa 1st Opening...

I think there will be two more generals beside Kabaton

So we have our first Blue Cure as a leader who has dreams of becoming a hero and we still don't know the reason why Kabaton kidnapped Eru which she is definitely holding some secret powers that are similar to Hug-Chan or the previous mascot characters which act as a McGuffin of the series. From the opening, we can see Sora looked up to a female character who probably saved her as a child which will probably appear later in the series as either A) a real hero like All-Might but went MIA before the beginning of the series, B) one of the generals or main villains or C) a big jerk who then ruined Sora's dream. (Never meet your heroes)

Mashiro was all right since it is Kakuma Ai voicing her and I can still hear a bit of Rabbrin in her. I am playing the mobile game Nikke: Goddess of Victory (The banner on my blog) and Kakuma voiced a character named Laplace who is also a self-proclaimed hero who wears a cool mask and carried a huge plasma cannon.

Eru is adorable, especially with her giggling and drinking her milk bottle in the opening. To be honest, I don't wish Eru to be a Precure as she might have the mindset of a young child like how Cure Felicity was. But those who want Eru to be a Precure, more power to you if that happened. 

I also noticed that the opening is probably Version 1 since there are some openings where characters are supposed to be standing and we have yet to see Cure Wing and Cure Butterfly's civilian forms. Yes, I am aware that Cure Wing is the first Male Precure to be part of the team and not a sixth ranger and he is voiced by Murase Ayumu who voiced Imura-Kun and Don Murasame of Donbrothers. Cure Butterfly is voiced by Nanase Ayaka who voiced Reiko in Super Club. 

Overall, this 1st episode is all right with Cure Sky's maiden battle and how Sora is the fish out of the water on Earth with Mashiro acting as her guide. As always, I will do the reviews if the episodes are of interest to me. So until then, take care, and see you in the next post!

Hirogaru Sky Precure First Trailer Impressions and my thoughts on Delicious Party Precure till now.

Hi, Everyone! I am back and no, I didn't disappear off the face of the Earth since last August. As I said before I will only do reviews for Delicious Party Precure if it interested me and from the way how the show is heading toward its finale, I just can't wait for it to end soon so that I have a clear slate for Hirogaru Sky Precure! 

So we have a Sky and probably Music Theme for this year's Precure which is also the 20th anniversary of Precure! I can't believe we made it! But it has been mostly downhill, especially in the last few seasons when many veteran fans including me felt disappointed in what Precure has become. 

For the first trailer of Hirogaru Sky Precure (if you don't know what Hirogaru means, it translates to Vast or Wide), we are introduced to our new Heroine, Sora Harewataru AKA Cure Sky and she is our first Blue Cure to be the leader of the team. Sora comes from the Kingdom of Sky Land which is a floating Kingdom above the clouds (Why no one noticed there is a floating continent in the sky is probably due to the lazy excuse-Magic)

Sora somehow rescue the young infant princess Eru from the villains of the season and crash lands on Sorashindo City on Earth. Of course, Sora will eventually become Cure Sky with her transformation items (Toys), the Cure Tone Jewel, and Cure Mirage Microphone. We are also introduced to our Second Lead, Nijigaoka Mashiro who will become Cure Prism and she looked like a White Cure based on the promotional materials.

Two more cures will also join the team, an Orange Precure-Cure Sky and a Pink Precure-Cure Butterfly. Sora is voiced by Sekine Akira who voiced Tokime in Fuuto PI and Mashiro is voiced by Kakuma Ai who previously voiced Rabirn in Healin' Good Precure. I called it in the Healin' Good Finale Review that Kakuma is too good to be voicing a mascot as she is very talented in doing cute and cool characters. Eru is voiced by Koga Aoi who voiced Kaguya in Kaguya Sama: Love and War and Komi Shouko in Komi can't communicate. 

Overall, not much to say until we see more trailers leading to the pilot episode. As for Delicious Party Precure, it has now become the bottom 3 series of least favorite Precure seasons. Two words that I describe Delicious Party is "No investment." This is bad storytelling compared to previous seasons. Yes, not every season is perfect even the ones that I like eg: Go Princess and Huggto have flaws but at least the characters I care about and it has what good writers called the beginning, the twist, and the resolution. Delicious Party has only the beginning and the resolution but there is nothing in the middle but aimless fillers that does not do much to develop the plot. 

When Amane becomes Cure Finale, there was no resolution of her character or why she became Gentle in the first place, she just blends into the team and that's it. No character development and she has the same personality as when she was first introduced. (Not even her voice actress Kayano Ai could do much given the lack of content, I mean I really want Kayano to ham up her character but this is a kids' show so no over-the-top moments like Darkness from Konosuba)

Yui who is supposed to be our Main Heroine is reduced to being an observer and keeps on quoting her grandma's words which does nothing but irritated everyone until her own grandma has to tell her to stop it. But before that, Yui did not do anything that cause her character to go through such a twist. I suspected that the writers completely forgot that Yui is the main heroine and left her undeveloped when her grandma gave her advice, I was scratching my head thinking, did we miss some episodes over Yui's slump?

Godatz who is now revealed to be Fennel is not a shocker since the signs are there in the previous episodes however it was too subtle and his motive is the same as Red and Queen Mirage from Happiness Charge who are jealous over one incident. But then the last few seasons' final bosses are not interesting at all so who gave cared about it anyway?

I will watch Delicious Party to the end to see how dumb can the writers go and hopefully Hirogaru Sky can do something to remove this terrible taste that is Delicious Party. For a show that has the word "Delicious" in the title, Tasteless is the word I will describe it. 

Delicious Party Precure Ep 1 Review: Party Go! Cure Precious is Here!

Hi, Everyone! This is my review of Episode 1 of Delicious Party Precure and let's Party Go!

Our story begins in Oishiina Town where the town is famous for its various food restaurants and chains. Nagomi Yui assisted her school soccer team in the winning goal and is enjoying some Onigiri that she said her catchphrase- Delicious Smile. 

Little Yui is Adorable!

Look at the Cute Fairies!

Look like Kome-Chan is able to become a Little Girl in the Future.

In the Cookingdom, the King has ordered Rosemary of the Search Team to locate the stolen Recipe-Bon and was given the three fairies-Kome Kome, Pam Pam and Mem Mem to aid him on Earth. After school, Yui took a shortcut and discovered some of the stores went out of business for no reason. Rosemary who has arrived in Oishinna Town was starving and fainted on a bench. 

Someone! Save Kome Chan and the Baby!

Kome Chan (I am going to add a Chan behind the fairies) woke up and tried to find food for Rosemary. She startled a mother who accidentally let go of her baby's trolley downhill. Kome Chan tried to stop the trolley but she was too small. Yui suddenly appeared and stop in time before startling Hanamichi Ran who is on a delivery run.

Fuwa Kokone was watching the commotion from her chauffer's car and acted indifferent to the matter. Yui found Kome Chan again and she offered some Onigiri which she ate happily. Kome Chan brought Yui to an unconscious Rosemary and she took him to her family's diner. Rosemary was grateful for the meal by Yui's mother and offered to wash the dishes since he has no money on him.

Yui saw Rosemary talking to a food spirit which he explained that they are Recipepe that only people who have love in their food could see them. Rosemary then thank Yui and left with the fairies. Meanwhile, in the secret hideout of the Phantom Bundoru Thieves, Gentle offered some Recipepe fairies that she capture to the stolen Recipe-Bon. Her comrade, Secretor claimed it is still not enough for their master, Godatz and order Gentle to capture more Recipepe.

The next day, Yui's Childhood Friend, Takumi told his mother he is getting some Omirice for lunch and Yui joined him. The two of them were enjoying the Omirice and Yui even saw an Omirice Recipepe. Gentle appeared and capture the Recipepe. It also causes the Omirice to taste terrible and Yui immediately confronted Gentle.

She saw Rosemary trying to stop Gentle and she create a Monster, Ubauzo to terrorize the townspeople. Rosemary created a "Delicious Field" that send him, Gentle and the Ubauzo to another dimension. Yui managed to squeeze into the field and rush to save the Recipepe. But the Ubauzo grabbed her and Kome Chan tried to save her. 

Gentle demanded that Rosemary released the field but Yui told him not to. She recalled that her grandmother comforted her with an Onigiri as a child and saw the Rice Recipepe and remembered her grandmother's words- Food is Smile. Kome Chan suddenly released her energy and create a Heart Cure Watch on Yui's wrist. Rosemary saw an opening and punched the Ubauzo away but damaged his pendant in the process.  

Why does this Delta Like Beam attack look familar?

Always say Thanks for the Food!

Yui broke free and transformed to Cure Precious with Kome Chan. Cure Precious was amazed by her new strength and power and her attacks-500 Kilocalories Punch and Precure Precious Triangle defeated the Ubauzo. The Omirice Recipepe broke free and entered into Cure Precious's Heart Cure Watch. 

Gentle escaped and Cure Precious asked Rosemary what is a Precure which he act dumb claiming it is a secret...

A new year, a new Precure season begins. Look like this season will be more interesting than the disappointing Tropical Rouge with Yui and her friends taking the helm this season. Yui herself is fun who has an understanding childhood friend, Takumi and Kome Chan already make me want to go and get her stuff figure to hug it. (But I still can't go to Japan!) 

Rosemary may behave a bit queer but he is actually a nice guy and is not afraid to pull his punches to help Yui although he is going to regret it since the damaged pendant might have some consequences which we will find out next episode. Kokone and Ran were just passing through in the pilot episode so we will get to know them later in the future. (It is confirmed that Kokone will become Cure Spicy in Episode 4)

Speaking of first in the series, we have a narrator which I am guessing is Yui's grandmother and the opening oddly ended with Yui instead of the usual team group shot like in previous seasons. Gentle was what I expect from Kayano Ai's performance with her acting all sinister but I am guessing it is not by choice that she behave all cold-hearted. We can see from the opening both Rosemary and Gentle has one more hidden comrade that has yet to appear which pike my curiosity on who could it be. 

Cure Precious's maiden fight was expected with her incredible strength especially her 500 Kilocalories Punch which suggest maybe she need a lot of food to replenish her strength after using it? Sounds like a Certain Princess from Princess Connect Re-Dive show. (I was thinking that MAO herself will voice Yui/Cure Precious since they have similar traits but Precure is known for giving newcomers a chance to show their talents)

Overall, I like this first episode and at least there is the main plot to recover the Recipe-Bon and protect the Recipepe spirits from the Bundoru Thieves. In the next episode, Yui offered to help Rosemary in his quest but Rosemary does not want her to get involved. What is the reason? Until then, stay safe and see you in the next post!